The Key to Peace eBook

Now I will continue with the incident in my own young
life. First, I want to say that from a child
I loved the Lord and my parents taught me what sin
was and I didn’t want to displease the Lord.
But I was not above temptations. So when I saw
this little doll, I was tempted by the devil.
I had an overmastering desire to have that doll and
I was enticed by the hope of the reward of having
it for my own and thought no one would know about
it. So quickly I picked it up and took it home.
You see, when I let lust, or that overmastering desire,
become conceived, or formed, in my mind, and I took
the doll, I committed sin. Sin was finished and
I was cut off from God. Spiritual death took place
in my heart. No longer could I come to God and
have communion with Him. Sin had separated me
from God. So as the Scripture says, “when
it [sin] is finished, it bringeth forth death.”

I brought the doll home with me, but oh, I didn’t
feel good in my heart! I knew I had sinned and
I wished I had not taken the doll, but I had it and
was on my way home. I came into the house and
my watchful mother saw it. She asked, “Where
did you get that doll?”

“Old Tennessee gave it to me,” I quickly
said, which was a lie. Another sin was added
to my first sin. The devil not only gets a person
to sin but he gets them to commit other sins to cover
up the first sin. Thus, he leads people on and
on, and deeper into sin they fall. (Old Tennessee
was an elderly black man who drove a horse and wagon
by our home, filled with junk that he had collected.
Sometimes, when he would stop and talk to us children,
he would give us some of his junk which we would value.)

I took the doll upstairs to my room and put it in
my dresser drawer. I didn’t want to play
with it. It didn’t look so pretty anymore.
My heart was heavy. I didn’t rest very
well that night as I dreaded going back to school.
I just knew the teacher would guess that I had taken
the doll. To my surprise, nothing was said the
next day about the doll. I avoided the girl and
hurried home after school. But yet the fact of
stealing that doll weighed heavily on my heart.
A few days later I took the doll out in the alley
and took a brick and smashed it all to pieces and
buried it, but that didn’t take away the sin
or the guilt. I had sinned against God and was
still a liar and a thief. Oh, how bad I felt!
I had been taught to pray from a little child, and
had always prayed, but every time I would try to pray
that sin would come up before me, so finally I quit
praying.

School was soon out and a few weeks passed by.
Bro. John Wilson came to our house from Missouri
and held a few nights’ meeting at the chapel.
One night he preached on hell fire. Oh, I could
almost feel the fire of hell around me! I trembled,
but hurried out as soon as meeting was over and the
invitation had closed. I went home and to bed
as soon as possible, but not to sleep. I rolled
and tumbled on my bed. The weight of sin was